WE AREN鈥橳 the only ones with a 鈥渨ork ethic鈥�. Pigeons value hard-won rewards
more than freebies, say researchers in Kentucky. This indicates that
appreciating the fruits of our labour isn鈥檛 a particularly human virtue, they
say.
Thomas Zentall and Tricia Clement of the University of Kentucky in Lexington
trained pigeons to tap a button to get food. Sometimes they had to tap once,
after which the button turned red and a food reward was produced. On other
occasions, they had to tap 20 times before the button finally changed
colour鈥攖his time glowing green鈥攁nd the treat was delivered.
Then the researchers gave the pigeons a choice: they could peck at either a
green or a red button. 鈥淭he traditional theory is that the pigeon shouldn鈥檛
care,鈥� says Zentall. If anything, you might expect them to associate the red
button with less work. But the pigeons chose the green, 20-peck button twice as
often as the red one, Zentall and Clement told the European Meeting for the
Experimental Analysis of Behaviour in Amiens, France, last week.
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Psychologists believe that our tendency to value things that we struggle for
is a cultural phenomenon, says Zentall. But pigeons do the same. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not
cultural,鈥� he says. It鈥檚 much more basic. All animals, he believes, are
extremely sensitive to a change in their condition. For the pigeons, a reward
after a single peck does little to improve their situation. But the same treat
after 20 pecks, when the bird is more tired, will give it a bigger boost. 鈥淚t鈥檚
absolutely the same, but relatively better,鈥� he says.
In this sense, pigeons and humans are quite similar, says Clement. A piece of
pie somehow tastes better if you have to walk ten kilometres to get it, rather
than just to a shop across the street. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 the same damn pie,鈥� she says.